Was the Leafs season a regression?

[SniperHF]

5 points fewer but more ROWs, slightly worse goal diff. Somewhat worse round 1. Meh. Not enough of a drop for me to call it a "regression".
That's small enough to be explainable by variance.

 

[Varan]

Yeah, they didn't exactly regress, but they also didn't progress to take that next step that folks said they would when signing Tavares as the thing to get them over the hump and Muzzin being the missing piece on the blueline.

Andersen did Andersen things, Kadri did Kadri things, Gardiner did Gardiner Game 7 things, and Matthews played less than 20 minutes in an elimination game. Same old, same old.

this really puts things into perspective lmao

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

The majority of their best players on their team are still under the age of when players typically begin to start having success in the playoffs.

They didn't progress as much as one would have hoped but Reilly, Marner, Kapanen, Johansson and Matthews all grew as individual players. There nothing to worry about. The core of players is good enough where eventually the playoff success will come.

Toews and Kane won a Stanley Cup on their ELCs. Crosby and Malkin made the SCF on their ELCs and then won the Cup the following year when Malkin was still on his ELC.

Toronto had three kicks at the can with their young stars on ELCs and they tried to win every year. They made moves to improve their team in the off-season and at the trade deadline in every single one of those seasons and they also hung onto rental players whose days in Toronto were numbered and kept them as their own rentals. They still won 0 playoff rounds.